From Pillar to Post 



not original, I thought. I know better now. 

 He was but the fruit of observation and read- 

 ing, as was everybody before him and since. 

 Adam copied the animals and learned many a 

 lesson from the trees ; otherwise he would have 

 proved a flat failure. Absolute originality is 

 only an ideal. I follow in footsteps that pressed 

 the sod a century ago, and sometimes, as my 

 reward, fancy I echo him who has been gone 

 so long. I find myself stopping, looking wise 

 and feeling really happy, as though perchance 

 I had a worthy thought. 



It is not altogether true that, being finite, we 

 can have no conception of the infinite. It is 

 readily understandable that there is no limit 

 to space. There may be a limit to the number 

 of celestial bodies, but no boundary to the space 

 they occupy. Of whatever point some one 

 should say, ' ' This is the limit of space, ' ' there, 

 it must be admitted, is an outside as well as an 

 inside of the boundary. In human affairs it is 

 the same story on a ridiculously small scale; 

 everywhere stand the suggestive outposts 

 marking what is before, not what is behind, 

 them. 



269 



